Influencer Marketing! What is this and where did this trend begin?

You might hear this word frequently and on a daily basis! But what is an influencer after all?

Social Media Influencer Marketing has evolved into the newest trend of the time due to the development of Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing. It is basically the most instantaneous and fashionable way for a company to advertise its brand, giving the opportunity to the most popular and reliable media people, a.k.a influencers, to promote a brand through their social media, therefore having an impact on their followers in a way that they know best.

Let’s take things from the start!

This trend has first appeared in 2009 by the Italian fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni whose blog entitled The Blonde Salad became a sensation with thousands of followers. With her every post, the beautiful Italian has introduced her readers to her personal life and made them endorse her own lifestyle! The result? Nine years later, Chiara owns more than 12 million followers from all over the world, steadfastly following her while also being instantly affected from the new trends she promotes.

Chiara has made it into the Forbes list with the most powerful and influencing personalities of the entire planet. Like Chiara is affiliated with the fashion industry, all the other influencers accordingly have their own “expertise” towards the audience following them as well as the domain in which they have an impact on; i.e. Brian Kelly loves travels, Mark Fischbach is crazy for online games, Kayla Itsines distinguishes herself in fitness, Nikkie de Jager in beauty, Gary Vaynerchuk in technology and entrepreneurship, and many others specializing accordingly on their own domain, managing to ultimately stand out. The only thing that’s certain is that the most powerful influencers of the planet, have managed to transform their passion into a profession.

Of course, Cyprus has its own influencers, each one having a great success in the domain he/she loves. For instance, Anna Cortesi is one of the most prevalent influencers engaging with nutrition and generally with a health lifestyle. Likewise, Thelma Christoforou is one of the best cross fit athletes, thriving in her domain thus being also a successful influencer.

If a fruitful collaboration is established between an influencer and a brand, then development succeeds on its own resulting in the ultimate goal, the influencer becoming…a brand ambassador! But what does that mean? The brand ambassador is the exclusive “representative” of the company! His wage increases as his responsibilities and commitments increase towards the company in which he owes to faithfully promote, putting his own exceptional touch in the ads and posts he shares online.

Finally, what is evident in the recent years is that the influencer himself transforms into a brand, therefore creating his own empire as in the case of Chiara who has established her own clothing line, bags and accessories worldwide!

We can therefore assume that in our time, influencer marketing has become a profession as the Inda Hush application which puts in touch brands with influencers has contacted a research with a number of users concluding that 64% of them believes that being an influencer is an actual profession and it is included as such in ones curriculum vitae.

The ultimate goal of influencers is to conquer the world through social media! Do you want to become an influencer as well? Stay tuned for our next post where we will outline the secrets towards success!